The French do not tolerate food waste

The fact that it is the French setting the precedent and a Frenchman, Arash Derambarsh, a municipal councilor who has persuaded French MP’s to adopt the regulation of forcing French Supermarkets to donate unwanted food to charity, does not surprise us here at ‘le Calabash’

We are witness each and every day to the fact that French have inborn respect for the value of food and do not tolerate food waste at all.

It is a shocking statistic that we waste close to 1.3bn tonnes of food annually, and this in the Western World. It is even more shocking to know that there are people loving on the doorstep of this waste, who do not know where their next meal will arrive from.In Europe alone we look at the staggering figure of 89mtonnes of food waste a year, 67% of it by consumers, 15% by Restaurants and 11% by Shops.

This is not the case in France, where it is 42% by consumers, 17% by restaurants and 41% by shops; this tells the story in its self.

We have single mothers with several children, pensioners, and public workers on low salaries, refugees and those living on the streets or in shelters who need to be fed and helped as they are in positions not chosen by them.

The French Amendment as part of the wider law will bar supermarkets from throwing away food approaching best-before dates and deliberately poisoning products with bleach to stop them being retrieved by people foraging through bins.

The rest of the world should take note of this; especially those in power who I am sure do not know the meaning of being hungry is. The corporate world has a lot to answer for and should be accountable for their actions in many instances. Price fixing, bulling of farmers and food producers and irresponsible advertising are just a few of the many that come to mind.

Food is the basis of life; it is an elementary factor of our existence. Perhaps it is naïve to be concerned about other human beings, but I know what it is like to be hungry. As a young kid I worked as a kitchen hand and lived in my car as my wages were so low that I could not afford three meals a day.